Valerie

Present

I heard some banging outside my door the moment I felt my eyes shut and sleep take over me. I sulkily got up from the bed and walked over to the door.

Who would be visiting at this hour?

I looked through the peephole and froze in place.

Why him?

I opened the door and waited for him to say something.

"We need to talk."

I eyed the bags under Damian's eyes which symbolized the lack of sleep he'd  been getting.

I wonder what's been keeping him up.

"What about?"

He didn't say anything as I opened the door further and allowed him to come in.

I motioned for him to follow me to the living room and allowed him to sit down on the sofa.

"Want a drink or something?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No, thank you."

I sighed as I sat down in the opposite end of the sofa.

"How did you know where I live?"

He let out a weak smirk.

"Mr Brown."

Of course.

I silently stared as I waited for him to say what he came to talk about.

"3 years ago."

My breath halted as I braced myself for what's to come.

"Why?" he asked.

I felt my expression darken before I shook my head and stood up.

"A cheater never has a good reason to cheat," I said.

He grabbed a hold of my wrist and pulled me back down on the sofa.

"Don't you think it's unfair that you left without explaining anything to me?"

"There's nothing to explain!" I exclaimed as I tried to pry his hand off my wrist.

"I know there's more to the story than just that, Valerie. You especially should know that I am not stupid."

"No, you're just having a hard time accepting reality," I said which I quickly regretted upon the sight of the flash of sadness that bypassed his eyes for a milli-second. At that, I finally let out a sigh as I felt myself starting to calm down.

Who am I kidding? Of course he would know something is off.

"Why are you suddenly so adamant that there was more to it? You didn't seek me out in the past 3 years and you seemed pretty hostile towards me when we first saw each other a few weeks ago."

He scoffed.

"As if you gave me the chance to come seek you out. You disappeared off the face of the earth."

That, I did.

I squeezed the bridge of my nose.

"Fine, you're right. But why now? You weren't so welcoming of me not so long ago. You even accused me of tripping myself deliberately so that I make it in the headlines."

"The look on your face didn't make it hard for me to know that you're right. You said that I don't know anything. That's why, I'm giving you the chance to let me know everything."

"What if I say I was lying to get myself out of it? There's nothing that you don't know of. I cheated. That's it. No more story to it."

I saw hostility starting to take over his features again as soon as the words came out of my mouth.

"Fine then. I guess I was wrong about you not being that bad of a person."

Why do I feel hurt by that?

"Wait-"

But he didn't, and he wasted no time in standing up and taking off.

Once again, I ruined everything.
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